


What's that they say about opposites?

by Alexa_Piper



Series: The Notebook - Unrelated Danny Phantom Oneshots from 2013 to 2019 [11]
Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Gen, Gray Ghost if you squint, backdated fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-10
Updated: 2014-07-10
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:54:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,339
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27210814
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alexa_Piper/pseuds/Alexa_Piper
Summary: Valerie finally decides to confront Phantom about something that's been bothering her.
Series: The Notebook - Unrelated Danny Phantom Oneshots from 2013 to 2019 [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1986457
Comments: 2
Kudos: 13





	What's that they say about opposites?

**Thursday, 10:30pm**

Dialling Tucker's number, Valerie hummed nervously before raising the phone to her ear. He answered on the fourth ring, voice thick around a mouthful of something that crunched. "Amity Park Mortuary, please state your name and purpose," he blurted by way of greeting. As though that was supposed to be funny.

The girl clenched her free hand in an attempt to quell its trembling, absently reminding herself to one day teach the poor guy some proper social skills. "It's Val," she responded, pacing from one end of the park bridge to the other. "Have you seen Danny?"

The crunching stopped, Tucker's words becoming much easier to understand as he swallowed, and Valerie decided that she didn't want to know what he was eating at such a late hour. Probably something full of sugar that would undoubtedly keep the tech-savvy teen awake for a long time yet. "Not since that last exam," he said. "He was pretty tired, so I think he went home to have a bit of an easy night. Why?"

The girl shrugged even though nobody was around to see her. "We were going to have dinner together," she confessed, "but he… he never showed up."

More crunching, the abrasive sound harsh through the mobile's earpiece. Valerie screwed up her nose, moving to lean against the bridge's railing.

"That doesn't sound like him," Tucker muttered. "Are you sure you were at the right place? There were no ghosts around tonight or anything like that to keep him from turning up."

Valerie chewed on her lower lip, eyes flitting from tree to tree, double-checking that nothing lurked in the gloom preceding the witching hour. "Could you please check if he's alright?"

A sigh crackled through the speakers. "If I call their house now, Jack'll wake up from the phone ringing and no doubt shoot out a wall or two because he thinks that a ghost's attacking. I'll walk down to his house to check if he's there though. It'll take about ten minutes."

"Thanks," Valerie said, "you're a really good friend."

"Yeah, whatever," the guy grumbled. "I'll text you if he's not alright to talk to you tonight. He can get a bit antisocial when he's tired or one of his dad's inventions has blown up in his face. Today was also the last exam – maybe he studied too hard and burnt out or something."

The huntress shuddered as Tucker hung up, recalling the previous month – one of Jack's ectoguns had malfunctioned, leaving Danny's hands and forearms with burns that had lasted for several weeks. The kid had shrugged it off whenever anybody cared to ask, but it was obvious that the injuries had caused him considerable trouble.

Her thoughts flitted to several hours beforehand, and Valerie curled her fingers around the cylindrical contraption strapped to her belt as if to assure herself that it was still there.

.

**Friday, 9:00am**

Shortly after the sun rose, its rays reached the perfect angle through Valerie's window to shine directly onto her sleeping face. The girl grumbled at its warmth, rolling away from the light and pulling the up blanket until it covered her head.

Last night she had waited at that park for another good hour at least, the monotony lending her a rare chance to fiddle with apps on her phone. She'd managed to more than double the amount of completed levels in Angry Birds before her tracker sounded the alarm, and loneliness twisted the huntress' insides as she activated her suit and swept into the stars.

The Box Ghost had never before received such a sound beating. Of course Phantom didn't show, and for some bizarre reason, this made Valerie feel more alone than ever. Why did this feel like she was being stood up all over again?

Instead of returning to the park after her short (and fairly one-sided) battle, Valerie had left the sky in favour of the stupor of sleep.

The girl wriggled under her duvet, bunching the blankets in her fists. The phone lying beside her pillow had received no new messages from a certain bespectacled boy _or_ his best friend.

Fine.

If Danny didn't have the decency to so much as apologise, then Valerie wasn't going to go chasing after him. Turning her phone and ghost alarm off, she remained nestled in the warmth of her quilt as sunlight moved its way across the floor.

.

**Friday, 10:00pm**

Locking the door, Valerie leaned her forehead against its inlaid window with a sigh. She pocketed her keys and strode away from The Nasty Burger, tucking her hands into the pockets of a worn uniform. She really should get a new one soon, but minimum wage was barely enough to help her father afford their rent and food. A new uniform, like all of the other good things that would have otherwise been available to her, was out of the question.

Girls like her didn't get nice things. For a breath or two, Valerie wondered about Danny. It was no secret that he still glanced at Paulina whenever she walked by, and the break up with Sam nine months earlier had hit the poor boy hard.

Valerie was nothing like those girls. Both of them had time for a relationship and all that it entailed. They had something to give, while she had nothing. Maybe that's why he had stood her up; after all, a girl who works two jobs and still can't afford a new uniform wasn't worth anything. Danny deserved better than her.

Screwing her eyes shut, Valerie pushed those thoughts away and counted to ten. Moping wouldn't do her any good, so it was time to think about something else.

The sky was clear and beckoning, but sent Valerie's thoughts to the thermos stashed beneath her bed. Those stars were suddenly vast and lonely, winking at the girl as though they knew something that she did not.

She would walk tonight.

Breathing deeply, Valerie began the three-block stroll to her apartment building. The early summer night rustled with a warm breeze, and the girl pulled wild hair free of its tie, shaking her tresses loose and sighing as tension finally began to bleed out of her limbs.

Before Valerie left for work, she had determined not to so much as think about Danny. The problem, of course, was that she was working the Friday evening shift at the one public place where he seemed to hang out with his friends consistently.

Sam and Tucker turned up to grab their usual Friday evening meals, but their strange friend made no appearance whatsoever. This in itself was not unusual – the geek and the Goth would often come and eat alone, giving Danny a little bit of time off from being their third wheel, but they would _always_ buy some food to take around to the poor guy.

Valerie kicked at a weed that had pushed its way through a crack in the pavement. It shouldn't mean anything to her, but the girl couldn't help but worry.

There must be a perfectly logical explanation as to why they didn't buy him a burger tonight. Maybe the Fentons had relatives over, or gone on one of their abrupt 'family holidays', or maybe Danny was sick?

Any other night Valerie would have talked herself into believing such excuses.

Turning the corner onto her street, the young woman resolved that if Danny hadn't contacted her by morning, she would take action.

.

**Saturday, 2:00pm**

The Fentons' lab was the epitome of modern innovation. A cube of sterile steel surfaces and cabinets of charging weapons, the room came complete with a state-of-the-art surveillance system, ghost alarm, and numerous ectoplasmic containment units for the storage and study of spectres.

The abandoned warehouse comprised of rotting wood and the smell of week-old fish left out in the sun. Valerie abandoned the sagging doors in favour of flying through one of the busted windows, alighting in the middle of her own makeshift lab.

Empty shipping containers had been rearranged to create a closed-in space that could only be accessed through the air, screening the girl's equipment both from the elements and prying eyes. Of course, Phantom had found the place almost instantly, but for some reason left it alone.

Unclipping the thermos from her utility belt, Valerie slotted it into the side of a containment chamber and thumbed the release button. The cap loosened with a burst of light, releasing a wave of green gas that swirled around the two-metre-cubed reinforced glass box. This swirling matter solidified into two distinct forms, and Valerie rolled her eyes heavenward with a sigh as the Box Ghost pressed his face against the phase-proof container with an indignant shout.

Right. She had forgotten that he was in there as well.

Twisting a dial set into the side of the thermos, Valerie calibrated it to only suck up ghosts class D and weaker. The obnoxious spectre was sucked back into his prison before his rehearsed tirade about how no box could ever contain _him_ even managed to reach its climax.

Phantom was left alone, glancing around with hands planted on slim hips.

"Y'know, I think this is the first time you've put me in one of these cubes," he remarked. "You're losing your touch, Val – it used to be straight to the chains and electrocution."

If he had been expecting a snide retort, the ghost would be disappointed; today wasn't time for their usual banter.

Furrowing her brow, Valerie met the gaze of the spectre who had somehow become – how dare she even think it? – a friend.

Damn it. She couldn't think like this, especially now that Danny was officially missing. Despite their constant teasing, and the fact that the two ghost hunters were always backing each other up in battle, Phantom was still a ghost. There was really no problem with Valerie catching him – he even allowed her to, so long as the girl's research wasn't more invasive than a skin scraping or ectoplasm sample.

This time felt different.

Sure, she had sucked him into the thermos on Thursday night. Valerie had had a date to worry about, and she seriously didn't need Phantom scaring off the notoriously nervous Danny Fenton. Still, this had been the first time she had captured the ghost without his permission, whether verbal or simply implied.

"Sooo, why'd you suck me up?" Phantom queried, floating on his back as though relaxing on the couch. "I hadn't even said anything annoying, so what'd I do to deserve a couple of days in there with Boxy?"

He didn't seem that angry, thank goodness.

"I need to talk to you."

"And it took you from Thursday 'til now?" the ghost grumbled, rolling onto his stomach and resting his chin on folded arms.

Valerie sighed, slumping against the glass. "Sorry," she said, mouth forming the apology before her brain could tell her otherwise. "I've had a pretty bad weekend so far."

Phantom remained silent, those brilliant green eyes never leaving her dejected form. "So I take it the date didn't go well?"

"I'm not even going to ask how you know about that."

The boy smiled for the first time, freckles glowing with a peculiar green. "I'm Danny Phantom, that's how. Besides, I'm sure he wound have turned up if he could. So why am I in a container?"

"You run off whenever I try to talk to you about Danny," Valerie said, forcing herself not to meet his eyes lest she falter. "Why?"

"Erm…" Phantom looked uncomfortable now, shifting so that he was standing on the floor. He moved from foot to foot, hand creeping to the back of his neck nervously. "I… well, I don't… That is to say, I'm… I-I'm-"

"Phantom," Valerie ground out, "you do realise that you're a ghost, right?" Her cheeks were hot, the collar of her suit suddenly suffocating, and she really had no clue what to do with her hands. "I'm a human. I like Danny Fenton, a lot. Sorry, but your little crush… Well, you really can't expect it to go anywhere while I'm alive and you're dead, right?"

The ghost's entire face had turned green, colour flushing from the tips of his ears to below the collar of his jumpsuit. "Val," the poor guy breathed, shaking his head slightly, "I swear, I'm trying to be honest with you here, but I'm not-"

"I know," she interrupted. "I just want to know that you won't delude yourself."

He heaved a sigh, gaze dropping to scuffed white boots. "I won't." His voice was so weak, as if anything more than a whisper would make it break like an elastic band pulled taut.

A huge weight lifted itself off Valerie's shoulders. "Good to know. Now that that's out of the way, do you know where Danny is?"

Phantom stared at her, mouth working itself silently. His expression was pleading – Valerie knew that look. But whatever he wanted to say, the ghost boy managed to swallow it before it could slip past rebellious lips.

"Skulker probably kidnapped him for bait again," Phantom mumbled. "Let me out and I'll go find him for you."

Valerie pressed a button on her control panel, sending her ally a small smile. "I'd come, but I have work in about half an hour. Give Skulker hell for me, okay?"

"Yeah," Phantom said in that same small voice as one wall of the containment cube slid into the floor.

He was gone with a reproachful glance and a burst of freezing wind.

Collapsing into her chair, Valerie took a deep, calming breath, and willed the heat to leave her cheeks. That was singlehandedly the most embarrassing thing she had ever had to do.

For a moment her thoughts turned to his hesitation, wondering what Phantom had almost said.

Shaking her head, Valerie stood and put on her helmet before flying out of the 'lab', pushing away the thought before curiosity could get hold of her. After all, it probably wasn't important.


End file.
